Hybrid Stripers--a brief History

[riverrat]

I did some research on hybrids today. They are raised at the Lost Valley Hatchery near Warsaw. Until 4 or 5 years ago hybrids were only raised every other year, alternating with walleye. Now they are raised every year. The numbers for stocking this year are: LOZ-165,000 Truman-150,000 Thomas Hill-49,000. There is also smaller numbers for some small lakes. This seems like a small number compared to the 700,000 stocked in Grand Lake. What was it the biologist in Oklahoma said about emails and phone calls? Is this a hint or what?

[Bill Butts]

riverrat,

Interesting info for everyone re the stocking quantities of Hybrids in MO.

Did you call someone in Fisheries or get the info off the MDC website?

Those numbers don't appear very large, but we would need the stocking rates for each lake for the past 5 years to get a better focus.

The 700,000 stocked in Grand Lake last year were the first since 2001, so there had been no consistency to maintain year classes of fish.

It was the Fisheries Biologist for Grand Lake that told me the number one request from fishermen they receive for Grand Lake is requesting more Hybrids to be stocked. The key for that fishery, now, will be to see if they are consistent in stocking some each year.

[riverrat]

Butts, I called the hatchery. They used to list the stockings on a web page, but not any more. I was told that the fishery manager for each lake put in a request each year for the numbers. Where do they come up with the numbers? Maybe that's all the lakes will support. I used to look up those numbers and they were about the same for every other year that they are now for every year. I fish for whites in LOZ in the fall and have noticed an increase in the percentage of hybrids{small ones} caught in the last few years.